Vital Impacts:

Vital Impacts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses journalism and visual storytelling to amplify and support the work of communities protecting people, wildlife, and habitats around the world. 

The Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Fellowships and Mentorships support visual storytellers undertaking long-term documentary photography projects that explore environmental and conservation challenges and, importantly, the people and communities working toward solutions. 

The program has a dual purpose: to provide financial support and mentorship to photographers developing significant bodies of work while fostering meaningful collaboration with communities and organizations engaged in environmental and wildlife conservation. We are particularly interested in stories that move beyond documenting environmental problems to illuminate the people, communities, and initiatives working toward meaningful solutions. 

In 2027, Vital Impacts will award: 

• One $20,000 fellowship to an established environmental photographer;
• Six $5,000 fellowships to emerging photographers from around the world; and
• Ten mentorships to photographers whose work demonstrates strong potential and would benefit from additional guidance and professional support.

Each fellowship supports one photographer and one documentary project over the fellowship and mentorship period, providing the time, financial support, mentorship, and creative independence needed to develop a compelling and deeply reported body of work. Fellows will receive ongoing guidance from the Vital Impacts mentorship community throughout the year. 

At the conclusion of the fellowship or mentorship, recipients will be expected to have made meaningful progress on their proposed project and developed a substantial body of work suitable for publication, exhibition, and other forms of public engagement.

A New Exhibition Opportunity with the Festival of Ethical Photography:

Vital Impacts has collaborated with the Festival of Ethical Photography for the past five years, and we are delighted to expand this relationship through a new partnership that will create an exceptional opportunity for one of our seven Fellowship recipients.

One Fellowship recipient, selected at a later date, will be invited to exhibit their work at the 2027 Festival of Ethical Photography in Lodi, Italy. For 17 years, the Festival has presented powerful documentary photography and photojournalism by internationally acclaimed photographers, providing a prominent international platform for work engaging with urgent social and environmental issues. 

The Festival will cover the full costs of producing and installing the exhibition, as well as the selected photographer’s international travel and accommodation to attend the Festival and present their work in person. 

This partnership gives a Vital Impacts Fellow the opportunity to share their work with an international audience, exhibit at one of Italy’s leading documentary photography festivals, and connect directly with photographers, editors, conservationists, and an engaged public.

Who should apply:

Vital Impacts is particularly interested in photographers who have a meaningful, established relationship with the people, places, and issues they are documenting. We believe the strongest environmental stories often emerge from photographers who have taken the time to listen, build trust, understand context, and return to a story over time. 

We strongly encourage applications from photographers documenting environmental and conservation stories in their own communities. Local photographers bring perspectives, knowledge, access, and relationships that can offer a depth and authenticity that outsiders may not have. 

At the same time, we recognize that meaningful relationships with a community or issue can take many forms. You do not have to live permanently in a place to have a genuine connection to it. We will also consider photographers who can demonstrate sustained knowledge and engagement through recurring travel, long-term collaboration, professional or academic experience, or other meaningful relationships with the community or issue they propose to document. 

Applicants should clearly demonstrate why they are the right person to tell this story: what they know, whom they know, what relationships they have built, and what perspective they bring that will allow them to tell the story with depth, context, and care. 

We are looking for photographers who are committed to long-term storytelling rather than short-term access—photographers willing to invest the time necessary for trust to develop, relationships to deepen, and more nuanced stories to emerge. 

What we are looking for:

We are seeking photographers who can convey the complexity of environmental and conservation challenges while also documenting potential solutions. 

Strong applications will demonstrate:

• A meaningful and sustained relationship with the community, issue, or conservation initiative being documented;
• A clear understanding of the environmental issue and its broader significance;
• A thoughtful and realistic plan for developing the project over 12 months;
• Existing access and trust, where appropriate;
• A commitment to ethical and responsible storytelling;
• A distinctive visual approach and strong photographic ability; and
• The potential for the resulting work to contribute meaningfully to public understanding of environmental and conservation issues.

Prior publication experience is not a requirement.

Ethics:

All winners are required to comply with the Vital Impacts Code of Ethics throughout the application, fellowship or mentorship, production, and delivery of their project. 

Applicants should review the Vital Impacts Code of Ethics before applying and must agree to comply with it if selected. 

Ethical compliance is not based solely on the applicant's signed statement. Vital Impacts may assess compliance through a combination of: 

• Review of submitted work and project materials;
• The applicant's project statement and demonstrated relationship with the community or issue;
• Regular check-ins;
• Communications with mentors and the Vital Impacts team;
• Review of concerns or complaints brought to Vital Impacts' attention;
• Requests for additional information or clarification where appropriate; and
• Review of project materials, captions, metadata, or other documentation where necessary to assess compliance with the Code of Ethics.

Vital Impacts reserves the right to investigate credible concerns regarding ethical misconduct and to take appropriate action when a fellow is found to have materially violated the Code of Ethics or the applicable Fellowship or Mentorship Agreement.